Name: Kathy
Location: Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Size: 750 sq.ft. 3 rooms, no kitchen
Years lived in: 3 years
>> Enter Kathy's House Tour
>> Enter Retro Dollhouse Tour
>> Enter Modern Dollhouse Tour
As I climbed the weathered but beautiful winding wood staircase up the five floors to Kathy's apartment, I imagined an ascent to a 19th century Parisian atelier filled with dust and clutter, but also a room full of gems. When I arrived I was not disappointed...
>> Enter Kathy's House Tour Gallery!
>> Enter Kathy's Retro Dollhouse Tour Gallery!
>> Enter Kathy's Modern Dollhouse Tour Gallery!
Kathy does not have a front door or a kitchen, and if you put down your glass of water, it is hard to find it again. But the chaos consists of a world of miniatures. At every turn, there are dollhouses--found on ebay, built by experts, salvaged from the street. And spilling out of those dollhouses are infinite varieties of miniature people, furniture, and accessories.
It was just ten years ago that Kathy spotted her first dollhouse. Unfortunately, the house she spotted in a store had already been purchased. The owner of the store was kind enough to lease Kathy the house for three days--enough time to solidify what would become a lifelong obsession. Since that first house, the fervor has only grown. Kathy believes there is a market for modern dollhouse furniture and has single handedly attempted to create and revive miniature mid-century pieces.
Her prize possession is a house modeled after Philip Johnson's masterpiece that she had built by an architecture modeling firm in Los Angeles. She asked a friend, Mary Kennyto make the dolls and another friend, Susan Hunt Yule to make all the clothes. Others were kind and talented enough to custom make furniture and wire the lighting. A few of the mid-century pieces are vintage from a time when a few companies manufactured them.
Kathy hopes to find a manufacturer willing to take on this business, creating and marketing mid-century miniature homes and its interiors to those who like the mini world but want a high style option.
AT Meta Survey:
Style: Brownstone - over 100 years old.
Inspiration: Boho Slob
Favorite Element: The dollhouse
Biggest Challenge: I don't challenge myself apartment living wise! Maybe I will again because I used to.
What Friends Say: They politely say I'm not such a slob. You know the truth.
Biggest Embarrassment: Near avalanche piles of stuff.
Proudest DIY: the studio curtains.
Biggest Indulgence: The dollhouse
Best Advice: Don't be like me. Be more organised and neater.
Dream Source: Not relevant. Okay - an old cheaply made deco kitchen cabinet. I love that thing!
AT Dollhouse Survey:
Size: This is so cute! Because to answer the square feet question - it's about 6 square feet and it's a one bedroom plus den (that's how it would be advertised in NYC if it were a real apartment.
Lived in: About 1 month - by a fictional family. The mom and dad are about 5 inches tall. The mom and dad are less than a year old and the baby is a vintage caco doll - about 60 years old.
Style: bauhaus, deco, mid century
Inspiration: A tin marx 50's dollhouse, Phillip Johnson's glass house. The dollhouse is named for my father, Paul V. Osborn.
Favorite Element: The butterfly chair made by two artists.
Biggest Challenge: Paying for the prototype. Another huge challenge was the curtain - getting the right drapiness may have been a breeze for someone but it wasn't for me. It's the best dollhouse curtain in terms of realism - I've ever seen - and boy do I know dollhouses.
What Friends Say: "Holy shit this is the best dollhouse on the planet. It's unbelievable." They ARE friends but I get the feeling they'd say the same thing if I wasn't in the room.
Biggest Embarrassment: I'm worried about having to be a business person. It's actually embarrassing. I just want to design because that's what I know how to do, but if money ever shows up, if this becomes a huge hit - I want to be paid fairly. This raises a million questions I know. Does a brilliant idea/design have to be a great business person as well? What's that have to do with Apartment Therapy - nothing!
Proudest DIY: Art directing the face and bodies of the dollhouse dolls. That isn't a DIY and it was a true collaboration (with a woman named Mary Kenny), but that is what I'm proudest of, and thinking to make changes of clothes for the dollhouse doll. The world's first dollhouse fashion doll. That doesn't answer your question perfectly and it doesn't fit with Apartment Therapy but I'm sure it doesn't matter.
Biggest Indulgence: The house itself.
Best Advice: Ask me a year from now. I'm still not sure.
Dream Source: Ebay. Boring but true. That's where most of the furniture came from. The guy who made the house made the oval dining room table, and a completely clear sliding door bookcase - J and G Models - and he's making the bed room. I wish he'd hurry up about it!! I love his work. He's amazing.
>> Enter Kathy's House Tour Gallery!
>> Enter Kathy's Retro Dollhouse Tour Gallery!
>> Enter Kathy's Modern Dollhouse Tour Gallery!
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
None of the links work. Help!?!
view shash's profile
Ah hah! Thank you.
view shash's profile
This rocks and totally makes my day. Love the tiny Miro painting. Thanks!
view jennifers's profile
You have GOT to be kidding me.
view jooly's profile
Oh boy, am I in trouble. Now I want a dollhouse. This looks like a very expensive hobby. The good news is your dolls don't have any clutter in their homes! Your photographs are beautifully styled.
Thank you for sharing.
view raven's profile
ok, so is anyone else having trouble getting the slideshows to work? i have a MAC and everytime i open a slideshow (no matter which one) on AT it crashes safari (the internet) ... please tell me im not the only one because i really need to see these doll houses haha! :)
view E.M.H's profile
um, no kitchen? not even a fridge? i know a lot of people who don't cook, but i guess this is the logical next step. The dollhouses are very cool.
Not sure I'd pay for one but I love seeing architectural models and thought they'd be great as a display piece in the home.
view Bolder's profile
I'd like to see more pictures in the house tour, rather than the doll house tour, but oh well.
view davidasposted's profile
Reminds me of the miniature killer on CSI.
view Nina79's profile
EMH - try using Firefox.
view Ingrid's profile
thanks ingrid! it worked
view E.M.H's profile
Why no kitchen? Does she eat out every single meal? Does she not even have a place to store cool drinks?
Not my style at all. Couldn't live like this.
view madampince's profile
I'm eventually going to get around to rehabbing the dollhouse my grandfather made for me when I was five. This post will a great source of inspiration. Thanks.
view Annie25's profile
Smallest coolest?
view SFGail's profile
Sheesh. People on this sight are no fun at all. You really think this is about her APARTMENT? It's about her amazing dollhouses! Both of which are awesome and definitely could be inspiration for your life sized home!
view Portland Jessica's profile
super size and make it livable
view cscamp20's profile
Sheesh is right. So it's not your style -- who cares?
People really open themselves up by allowing these tours, and the comments are amazingly rude sometimes. Would you say this kind of thing directly to the owner if you stepped into this home? Because it is every bit as rude to say it here. The owner still hears it, and they are still hurt by it.
Anyhoo, I think I need to start a new career making dollhouse furniture. I love the miniatures!
view superbeetle's profile
Amazing! These remind me of the Thorne rooms at the Art Institute.
view selena's profile
I'm blown away by these dollhouses! I wish that my own apartment could look as cool as these miniature rooms!
view suzy8track's profile
Super, the first thing I'd ask Kathy is how she lives there without at least a microwave and a dorm fridge. And Portland Jessie, I do think part of this is about her apartment, especially since the description specifically mentions no kitchen.
That said, I like how open she is about herself. I also admire her ability to work with miniatures, because I'm hamfisted and impatient -- could never do it. And as I said in my previous post, I couldn't live like she does.
view madampince's profile
So much fun! Thanks for sharing.
view I Love Upstate's profile
Wow. These are fantastic!
view BonivaGScott's profile
OMG--I'm not alone! :) I'm been obsessed with a Buzz Yuddell studio apartment I saw on pages of a John Pile interior design textbook way back in '97. I've been thinking of making a model to put --and yes, maybe too play with too--on my desk at work.
The craziest thing is that the apartment was only used to compare/contrast different types of plan drawings.
view Kinky Gazpacho's profile
Mad, insane, passionate love for the glass house... that is a gorgeous project.
I gather from the use of the off-white Plasco bathroom set that it's 1:18 rather than 1:12? That's an extraordinarily difficult scale to work in these days -- hard to get anything.
view wende in the twin cities's profile
ooh, this made me run to "the google" to check on the Knott's Berry Farm dollhouse collection. Even as a kid in the sixties, Knott's Berry Farm was the non-plasticky antidote to Disneyland next door.
Sadly, all those rows and rows of dusty dollhouses (Pilgrim cabin, Mexican market, Victorian attic....) have been "kicked out" of the modern theme park. According to the out-dated (and justifiably bitter) website for the Mott dollhouse museum, the museum itself closed 10 years ago, scattering tiny socks knitted on toothpicks to the winds.
Just for old time's sake, here's the link to their remaining online miniatures shop: www.minishop.com
view Acer's profile
...and for even more inspiration, at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Thorne Miniature Rooms collection!
Online at www.artic.edu/aic/collections/thorne
and click on "view featured works"
view Acer's profile
I've had this dollhouse blog bookmarked for a while. Either the writer's an AT fan, or has "dollhouse" on Google Alert. :)
http://minimodern.blogspot.com/
I've got a three-storey Tudor dollhouse that my grandfather built for me in 1989, and have been thinking more and more lately that it's time for a makeover! It'd be the perfect use for all the fabric and wallcovering samples floating around my office.
view estydesign's profile
Oh so enjoyable. Thank you Kathy! What a fun tour. I would be a potential customer for your fledgling business, for sure. I actually have your turquoise chair in the nursery of the modern dollhouse, except in lavender. An Ebay purchase. I've been intending to collect more, when I have space dedicated to display it. Seeing a great collection like yours makes me happy!
I had a strange dollhouse when I was a kid, and am wondering if you've seen anything like it. It was one story, modern, open at the top. The base was cardboard, I believe, with everything from grass to cement to carpet to tile printed on it in full color. The walls were white plastic and similarly covered w/paper detailed w/wallpaper, artwork, etc. The walls could be assembled to create the house-they fit into slots on the base - and disassembled easily. Very mid-century modern. I played with it often and wish I'd kept it.
I love your dedication and sense of style. One thing is more fantastic than the next! You should think about doing a coffee-table book about dollhouses, with plenty of pictures featuring your fantastic collection.
view greer's profile
i completely understand. . .
www.kristapeel.com
http://kristapeel.com/section/15387.html
view kristapeel's profile
ITA agree with greer, you should make a coffee table book.
view pungster's profile
Ever since I started blacksmithing, I've harbored a interest in having teeeeny tiny hand-forged things for a dollhouse. Tiny little hinges, tiny little fancy staircase railings, ittsy bittsy metal chandeliers...
But I feel kind of silly making things without a dollhouse, and there's absolutely not even a smidge of room in my tiny apartment to play around with.
view Kaete's profile
I was just thinking wow, half the fun must be the hunting for these charming little things. Especially with the millions of places in NYC and those incredible flea markets and street fairs all over the five boroughs. I love the details on the walls and floors. Great work. Certainly keeps you focused and out of mischief.
view click212's profile
what a delightful inspiration!! i am truly enamored by kathy's stylish dollhouses!
view froulala's profile
This brings back memories. My dollhouse was three stories with oodles of rooms in an odd scale. Everything is tucked away for my daughter (7 mos) to one day play with. It definitely influenced my love of decor.
view gourdsaregorgeous's profile
What an incredible hobby! I would totally LOVE doing this. Thanks for sharing your art.
view baileyb's profile